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A podcast on shared humanity; discussing personal and professional perspectives. From serious to silly to sublime, coming from kindness and curiosity, it is all about connections.
Hi. I hope you are well. This podcast is a place for people to share personal and professional perspectives, talk openly, and ask questions. From serious to silly to sublime, it's all about communication and connection. Always coming from a place of kindness and curiosity, we talk about shared humanity, discuss ideas, and highlight people creating a better world.
Melissa Shere Beek:We've got to keep learning, keep growing, keep being. I'm Melissa Beek, and this is Beek on being. Today's episode is Beek on being and regression. When I was young, I was fascinated by a movie called On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. In 1988, I was blown away by Doctor.
Melissa Shere Beek:Brian Weiss' book, Many Lives, Many Masters. They resonated with me because both dealt with gaining insight from past life experiences, intuitive knowledge. In studio today, to give us greater insight and understanding about regression, is licensed clinical social worker, clinical hypnotherapist, and associate professor at Barry University. She does it all. Doctor Jennifer Williams.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yay. Thank Thank you so much for joining us today. I'm glad to have you here.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Thank you. Thank you. I'm thrilled to be here.
Melissa Shere Beek:Oh, I'm so excited to get into everything. So, first, I want you to tell our listeners a little bit about you and how you got into everything that you do.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:So that's a long I love it. That'll take a little bit, but professionally, I consider myself to be what's called a trauma focused, neuro informed psychotherapist.
Melissa Shere Beek:Oh, I love that.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Yeah. And what I do with my clients in my clinical practice is I help them to get to the root cause of whatever it is that's bothering them, disturbing And so, I really am the kind of therapist where you just roll your sleeves up, get in it together Mhmm. And let's go back and find the origins of what's really bothering you.
Melissa Shere Beek:The root.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Yeah. The root of that. So I've been a psychotherapist for twenty eight years. And like you said, I'm associate professor in the School of Social Work at Barry University. And I've been in academia for twenty three years.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Nice. Yeah. So teaching and I've maintained my private practice the entire time.
Melissa Shere Beek:That's wonderful.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Yeah. My area of research is in neurobiology and the mind and body connection. I have written curriculum, design curriculum for doctoral students and master's students in neurobiology and the mind and body Fabulous. Yeah. So that is my area of interest.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:And I probably let's see, when I first wrote that first course of neuroscience and the mind and body connection was probably about ten, twelve years ago. Way Okay. Before anybody was talking about any of this. In fact, it was probably around the time where Bessel van der Kolk wrote a book, The Body Keeps the Score. Mhmm.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:And in fact, I had a series at Berry many years ago around that time called, A Literary Gathering for Intellectual Diversity and invited him to come Oh, and speak wow. To our students and faculty and our community, because it was at the time considered a little out there. Yeah. You know, even though he's a medical doctor.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right. Not science y enough for the sciences.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Yeah. Yeah. So, I'm not sure how I veered off on that.
Melissa Shere Beek:You were talking about Yeah. Your
Dr. Jennifer Williams:So the mind and body connection. It's always been connected. Started my career doing therapy with children and adolescents. That is how I started. And then I transitioned a little bit into teaching parenting classes, went a little bit into administration, and then I went into academia.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:So I've always had teaching and the clinical work in the professional realm.
Melissa Shere Beek:I love it, I love it.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:And then there's this other personal side that probably guided a lot of my work.
Melissa Shere Beek:Okay. You wanna expand upon that or
Dr. Jennifer Williams:I can. Okay. Yeah, sure. So in terms so well, let me go back and just say what what it is that I do professionally. So, right, I do EMDR.
Melissa Shere Beek:These are the modalities that These are the modalities
Dr. Jennifer Williams:that I use, clinical hypnosis, mindfulness based approaches. And I specialize in anxiety and depression. And I really have always done that. Personally, I've always been interested in outside the box modalities. Right.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:All of those modalities that, you know, in my world are considered not evidence based.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right. Woo woo
Dr. Jennifer Williams:out there. Right?
Melissa Shere Beek:I got you.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Yeah. So early in my career, I started to have some physical symptoms. I started to have my heart racing. I now know what it is, it was burnout.
Melissa Shere Beek:But
Dr. Jennifer Williams:it was progressing so significantly that I was actually there were a couple of times where I actually lost consciousness and passed Wow. Went to every doctor, everyone said, you're young. There's nothing wrong with you. Good luck with that, go see a therapist.
Melissa Shere Beek:I'm a therapist. I'm a therapist.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:I know what to do I don't need help. Yes, I know what to do. Don't need help? Yeah. But I did.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:I went to a traditional therapist and worked through that. And still some of these symptoms were not going away. And I had a colleague, a professor, who also I loved because she was very much outside the box. I like that. She came up to me one day and she said, hey, Jennifer, I know you're dealing with a lot of stuff.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:I think you should go and try, astrology. And just, you know, dabble in that a little bit. It might help give you some better understanding of yourself. And, you know, by the way, there's this thing called energy healing. Maybe you should go and try that out as well.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:So this started for me sort of opening up a little bit to other alternative ways of healing.
Melissa Shere Beek:Of healing.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Yeah. I went in and I never turned around. Like that was it. I immersed myself in everything. I learned about energy healing, which by the way helped me.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:And I stopped having all of those symptoms, right? Learned meditation. Learned how breath work. I did professional trainings on them. I learned how integrate that into my own And all of a sudden, everything started to get better.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:So I was going down that path. Then as you go down that path, you want to learn more, you want hear more about those things. And around that time, there was a book Brian Brian Weiss had published. I think it was around 2004. And I think it was called Same Souls, Many Bodies.
Melissa Shere Beek:Think
Dr. Jennifer Williams:that's Something what it that. We were going on a trip out west and I just bought the book and I read the book the entire way out there. And I said, I've got to learn more
Melissa Shere Beek:about this. Exactly.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:And I looked it up and it just so happened that next month he was going to be at the Miami Book Fair. And so, my husband and I went and waited in line and talked to him and I said, he was so kind, there
Melissa Shere Beek:were like hundreds of people
Dr. Jennifer Williams:in line. And I said, Doctor. Weiss, this book was just transformative for It changed my life. I love this so much. I'm a therapist.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:I would love to learn how to do this. Can I, you know, do you do these trainings? And he said, yes, I do. Come out here, do this. Anyway, that next year, I I went out and, and I did a week long training with him and his wife
Melissa Shere Beek:Incredible.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:And learned how to do past life regression as a therapist. How I to love integrate all of that.
Melissa Shere Beek:So it's an incredible modality to use for therapeutic purposes.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Melissa Shere Beek:So let's talk about that. Let's talk about regression. Can we define what regression is and then also define maybe what past life regression is? Sure.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Okay. So quite simply, regression is going back to an earlier time. Mhmm. Right? And going back to an earlier time means experiencing it not just like as if we're back in it again
Melissa Shere Beek:Mhmm.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:But any images, any feelings, any sensations that you have, you back. You go back into an earlier time. Past life regression is going back into another time
Melissa Shere Beek:that
Dr. Jennifer Williams:you were not in this body. Right. And I do feel like we probably need another word for it because we can go in between lives. Right. Right.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:We can even go
Melissa Shere Beek:forward. Right.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:And go, you know, back in time. So the difference is regression is just going Backwards. Yesterday, what you had for breakfast today, back to childhood, back into the womb, yes, believe it or not.
Melissa Shere Beek:Really? That's fascinating.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:And then, past life is going back before you were in the womb here in this.
Melissa Shere Beek:Got it. So just a soul.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Just the soul, so right. Your body's following the
Melissa Shere Beek:journey of the soul. Good. So do clients come in seeking regression therapy or is it something that you suggest depending on what their issue is that they come in with?
Dr. Jennifer Williams:So I never suggest a past life regression unless I've been working therapeutically with somebody and maybe they feel stuck or they've explained to me that this is something that is of interest or they have a question about it and they feel as if we've really looked at everything.
Melissa Shere Beek:Run the course of other modalities and we're not resolving Yeah, the exactly. Okay, good. Okay, so can you talk us through the process of regression therapy?
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Sure. Past life regression therapy? Or regression therapy? So actually it is the same. The first thing is the most important thing with any modality, and especially with regression, is that a person feels safe and comfortable.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:So every client that I work with, I didn't mention this, I want to say how important it is that I differentiate myself from a past life regressionist and a past life regression therapist. Got it. I am a therapist first. And so many times, people come in with issues that originate from this lifetime. Sometimes they are themes that were activated or started in previous times.
Melissa Shere Beek:Got it.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:I am a therapist first. So I I have some personal experience around that and why this is so important, why I take this this work so incredibly seriously.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yes. It is.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:And I'll talk a little bit about that. But that's why when a person comes in to see me, let's say that they're coming in just for a past life regression, and that does happen. Very often they'll call and they'll say, I want to have this regression. The first thing is I talk to them over the phone and I share what how I work
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:And the expectations. Because many times, they'll read things like Brian White's books, right, and want to have that vivid experience and, you
Melissa Shere Beek:know That doesn't always happen.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:No, it I mean, it can.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. But it's not always a given.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:There's so many factors that go into that. And so, you know, just sort of give some realistic And
Melissa Shere Beek:expectations of what that's gonna
Dr. Jennifer Williams:then the first session in person is well, it's all in person, but the first session is an assessment. So I'm just making sure that they sort of meet criteria to be able to. There are certain diagnoses and psychoses that we would not do regression.
Melissa Shere Beek:A regression on people with that, yeah.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Yeah. So, but I'm also it's a couple of things. I'm getting them to understand the way I talk. I'm helping them to start to feel safe and comfortable.
Melissa Shere Beek:Comfortable, yeah.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:And I'm learning more about their story. I'm learning about what it is that they're experiencing right now, what their childhood was like, who the players are, who the parents and the friends. Right.
Melissa Shere Beek:All the factors that go into this.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:All of the pieces that go into
Melissa Shere Beek:I think it's important to note that when someone's looking to do this that they have to go to a professional like you. Like this isn't just this is serious, and they need to go to someone who has experienced and trained and knows what they're doing from a therapeutic standpoint.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Now that you say that, that's exactly why I do this work and I take it so seriously.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yes.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:There were so many years ago, I'm forgetting the time before my daughter was born, My husband had been in a car accident and he was okay, but he was referred to a massage therapist who specialized in some other type of work, like craniosacral work. So he went to her, he called me, and he's like, hey, Jen, I know this massage therapist is really far away, but she was amazing. And she does this thing called craniosacral work, and you have TMJ. I think this is really going to help you. You should you should come and have a session.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:So I'm like, okay. Sure. Mean, I'm vetted by my husband. Fantastic. I'm like, I'm up for that.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Now this is after I've already been trained in past life regression. Mhmm. And let me also say I'm sort jumping all over
Melissa Shere Beek:the No. Place love it. I love it all.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:But even through the training so let me let me just say this. Even through the trainings, even through trying individually to do a past life regression with various professionals Mhmm. I never was able to regress.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yourself personally?
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Myself. I was never able to regress. I now have a language for that, and I understand that I never felt safe or comfortable, and I was too analytical and too anxious. Right. And the person didn't really know how to ease that.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Right. But I didn't, but I could do it for others. Right. And it was fine. So that's important to note.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:So I'm a psychotherapist. I'm trained in regression therapy. I know what happens and how to work through that therapeutically. So I go into the massage therapist and I think that I'm going to be getting a massage on my jaw. And about twenty to thirty minutes into it, the therapist stops putting her hands on me.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Her hands are just above my face. I've done energy healing. So I thought, okay, she's doing some energy healing. And then all of a sudden, I started to have this vivid, vivid picture in my mind because I'm relaxed and it's dark, my eyes are closed. And I only explain it like those old Capital One commercials with the Vikings.
Melissa Shere Beek:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Right? And I saw a Viking ship, and it was off of the coast. And I am laying on an island, and the ship is off and I'm by myself. Wow. I'm like, is very bizarre.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:She then says to me, are you seeing anything? And I was like, nope. Good. No. I'm really relaxed.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:I'm on a day. Is good here.
Melissa Shere Beek:And I'm on a beach somewhere with the Vikings. I'm literally on a beach.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Yeah. And, she said, well, I I want you to tell me what you're seeing. Right. Do you see anything?
Melissa Shere Beek:Did you tell her?
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Eventually.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Took me a minute. And then she said, I see that too. I'm like, really? She said, let's just go with it. So for the next hour or two, here's what happened.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:All of a sudden, I felt like I was a really, really young girl. Very,
Melissa Shere Beek:very young.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:And I put my hands and rested my hands on my belly. A belly that in this lifetime I have never had had. But I was clearly pregnant. And the massage therapist was intrigued by this because this is the first time that she had ever seen anything like this in her own Wow. So out of the novelty she was doing, she was keeping me there for a really, really long time and trying to investigate more.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:But what came to me was an immense feeling. I was downloaded with extreme depression that I'd never felt before. Wow. And I came to realize that in that lifetime, I was probably 11 or 12 years old, and I had been impregnated by my biological father in that lifetime, who was a head Viking. And he and his drunken
Melissa Shere Beek:Friends?
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Cohorts? Right. Put me on this ship, took me to the island And
Melissa Shere Beek:left you?
Dr. Jennifer Williams:And left me.
Melissa Shere Beek:I have chills.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:So, yeah. They must have thought that I was dead because I emerged not really knowing where I was and feeling this depression. I'm actually missing a really important part of this. Okay. Two or three months prior to this, I had had in the left lower quadrant of my belly like a little rash looking thing.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:It was just a little bumpy And it didn't hurt. It didn't
Melissa Shere Beek:Like a contact dermatitis kind of thing, just a little
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Yes, exactly. But it was growing. So I went to a dermatologist and we kept trying to figure it out and use creams and nothing worked. And she finally said a couple of weeks before I had this session, she goes, Look, I don't know what this is, but it's growing and I'm actually kind of concerned. Let's try this more intense cream.
Melissa Shere Beek:But
Dr. Jennifer Williams:I want you to come back in a few weeks. We're gonna do a biopsy. Yeah.
Melissa Shere Beek:Was gonna say, yeah.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:I'm worried about this.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. Okay. That always makes you feel great.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Right. Excellent. That had happened a few prior Right? To this Mhmm. Mhmm.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Not the reason I went in.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:So here I am now in this deeply relaxed state having very vivid Memories. Images, memories, not just in my mind it started in my mind but then it changed into, I felt it. Sensations. Completely. Yeah.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Like, I felt it. So, here I am. I'm downloaded with depression. I can see that I'm alone, and I'm in despair. I'm a little kid.
Melissa Shere Beek:Wow.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Left alone with a child in my belly.
Melissa Shere Beek:So, what happened? How did you tell me.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:So, I look around and I see a sword. And I am going through this process of do I do this, do I not do this, any of that. Anyway, I pick up the sword and I put it in my belly.
Melissa Shere Beek:Where the contact dermatitis is? Exactly where that was. Unbelievable.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:So, I didn't even make that connection at the time, so it was to either kill myself or the baby or both, I don't know. But because this massage therapist didn't really understand what was going on and she saw that and she tried to take me through it, she didn't do a good job. I was there for over three hours. Right. She finally emerged me.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:When I came out, I was fascinated by what had happened. Right. It was clear I knew what had happened. Right. And then it hit me.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Oh my gosh. Place where the sword went in was in that area where I had that rash show up. Mhmm. So now I'm a little excited and encouraged by it, but yet I'm also simultaneously feeling this complete despair. Yeah.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:The the therapist is excited. She's, yay, yay, you've gotta come back to me. I've never had this before. I'm exhausted. And I still have a forty five minute drive home.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:So I remember calling my husband saying, the most incredible thing happened. You know, I'm telling him where everything. I get home, and I kind of roll down my pants to show him where, you Well, where it it was smaller. It was smaller. Sorry.
Melissa Shere Beek:No.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:That's okay. It was smaller. And we're like, oh, that's very interesting. Fascinating. We go to bed because it was late at night.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:We go to bed, I wake up in the morning, and it is gone. And it has never come back.
Melissa Shere Beek:You healed that trauma on so many levels.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Well, here's the thing. I I healed a component of it. Uh-huh. And the reason why I say this is so important and why I started sharing this story in terms of why you take this seriously. Yeah.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Because it took me a good year to pull myself out of this despair and try to understand the emotional download that I had. The physical healing happened.
Melissa Shere Beek:Immediately, yeah.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:That was amazing. Right.
Melissa Shere Beek:That was fantastic. Right. But you're still carrying the load.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:No one prepared me or helped me for that download. And so I had to work again, remember, I do this work. I'm trained in
Melissa Shere Beek:it. Right.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:I'm a psychotherapist. I believe I know all the things. Right. And I still couldn't get myself through it. So the reason is, is because the massage therapist did not know what she was doing.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right. She was trying to help you but she wasn't trained like you are. So you need someone who's got all of the credentials that you have to help you through this process.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Yeah. And not use me as a novelty to try and help her ability. Right. And what she ended up doing is keeping me there for way too long so it actually gave me a trauma response. Right, right.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Not help to heal me. Right. She should never have done that. Right. You know, I did go back to her a couple of times just trying to figure it out, and unfortunately and she was a lovely, lovely person, is a lovely person, but unethical.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Right. And she harmed me emotionally. Right.
Melissa Shere Beek:She added trauma.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:She did. And then there were a couple of other sessions that she did that, and more came out in a very negative way, and she didn't know how to heal it, and she didn't know how to close it.
Melissa Shere Beek:And
Dr. Jennifer Williams:so, you know, I was very open with her and just said, I really can't continue this anymore, and I would strongly recommend that if you ever do this again, that you go find some training.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right, I was just going to say.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:So that put me onto a path of figuring out, number one, why did that happen
Melissa Shere Beek:to And how do you deal with it?
Dr. Jennifer Williams:How do you deal with that? And learning more about so that never happens to anyone else. Right,
Melissa Shere Beek:for your patients or anything?
Dr. Jennifer Williams:For my patients. So this is a good twenty something years ago. Mhmm. It's just been probably in the past five years that people have become more open to this. Right.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:So here I am working in academia, and it's very interesting. Any time that I would talk about, listen to this, meditation, meditation, I talk about meditation, and my colleagues would come to me and say, you can't talk about that. That's not evidence based stuff. That's woo woo stuff. Right.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:We don't do that.
Melissa Shere Beek:That all the time.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:All the time. Yeah. So publicly, in faculty meetings and meetings, they would make fun of that. And then individually
Melissa Shere Beek:They'd come to you and say it.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Come to me. Exactly. Hey. I got this thing. Right.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Right. Right. Right. You know? So I I want to say also, back then, it wasn't like I could just kinda come out and say that I was having all of this and talk openly with colleagues.
Melissa Shere Beek:This was a It's very different. Very different time.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Private thing that was going on. And so, I suppressed it. And so, there was this part of me that was going down this path of academic, you know, evidence based, doing the right psychotherapy thing. And then also over here I've got this personal thing going on
Melissa Shere Beek:Right, that you're not addressing.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:That I'm not addressing and I quietly work with people over here but I'm not advertising it. Right. This experience told me I've got to merge them and I have to teach other people how to do this effectively so that no one gets harmed from this.
Melissa Shere Beek:So, do your patients come to you like with regression therapy? Does it help with not just trauma but like all of the anxiety and the stress and all those things. So, the regression therapy helps them go back to a time where they took on that stress and anxiety so you can help them process the issue and move forward.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Yeah. So, that's the beautiful part of this work. I have come to learn that the most important component of this is feeling safe in the body and having a regulated nervous system, which is why that assessment is so important.
Melissa Shere Beek:Critical. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:And what we do then is go back to the origins of wherever that anxiety
Melissa Shere Beek:depression or trauma
Dr. Jennifer Williams:First showed up.
Melissa Shere Beek:So why is it important for people to address all of these issues?
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Well, because Bessel says the body keeps the score. And boy, did my own personal experience say that. Right? Yeah. But it does.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:So there are these imprints that are left on us. And look, we don't have to go into past life regression to even talk about that. We now
Melissa Shere Beek:just go back know to childhood.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:We go we could go back to anything that left an intense impression on us that we were not able to integrate. So if something significant happens in our life that is traumatizing, difficult, or overwhelming, and we don't have the ability or the opportunity to process that
Melissa Shere Beek:and walk
Dr. Jennifer Williams:through that, we won't heal.
Melissa Shere Beek:It sticks
Dr. Jennifer Williams:and it just plays out over and over and over again and can grow and get worse.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right, until you handle the issue.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Until you
Melissa Shere Beek:handle And heal yourself, right. So when we talk about that and healing and the imprints of trauma and maybe not just childhood in this lifetime but maybe souls from past lives. When people I mean, you know, you see these people who are creative or they're talented and they're incredible at what they do, whether it's a musician or an artist and you think, God, this is a skill that is just a gift, you know? Like where does this come from? But not just great things carry over from what you've learned in past lives or what your soul has learned in past life, but I feel like trauma carries over too.
Melissa Shere Beek:And like you said, you're still dealing with it until you learn how to heal it. So how does the soul come with past traumas and is that trauma consistent? Because I know that okay, so we're talking about science and woo woo. Scientifically, they've proven that intergenerational trauma is carried in a cellular level.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Mhmm.
Melissa Shere Beek:So I guess my question is on the more woo woo side, but I still believe it exists that the soul carries that trauma or those imprints, negative or positive, from each lifetime. So how do you help someone address that so they can heal that and move forward?
Dr. Jennifer Williams:I've got a lot to say
Melissa Shere Beek:about it. Okay, lay it on me.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:So let me start with how do I help somebody address that. The answer is very simple. We just go with the feeling. We just need to go with whatever feeling the
Melissa Shere Beek:person And validate that.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Absolutely. And allow first the body to feel comfortable and safe. That's why I use hypnosis, but many times I just use guided meditation or breathing, right?
Melissa Shere Beek:I don't think a lot of people understand that that controls your heart rate, that controls the way you think. That, like you said, it's all connected, the brain and the body. So if you can control the physical, I think that helps with the mental and vice versa.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:That's right.
Melissa Shere Beek:Sorry. That was my 2ยข.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:No. You're you're absolutely right because what happens is is that if I am in a stress response, then there's something called a window of tolerance. I pop out of my window of tolerance, and what happens is the prefrontal cortex shuts down. I mean, there's a whole neurobiological reason to what's happening. Right?
Dr. Jennifer Williams:And in trauma work, the same thing. We don't do any, interventions until we first teach a person how to feel safe in their body. Right. So stay within the window of tolerance because we know that going back to previous times that were overwhelming, challenging, difficult
Melissa Shere Beek:Right. They're going to Bring up a lot.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:They're gonna bring up a lot.
Melissa Shere Beek:We don't have be prepared
Dr. Jennifer Williams:for that. Exactly. Like my own experience. Yeah. But I want to circle back to what you were saying Okay.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:In terms intergenerational because I think that's also really important, and that's one of the newer things that I think about and I get very excited about.
Melissa Shere Beek:This is what I wrote my thesis on in my master's.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Oh, you're kidding.
Melissa Shere Beek:Intergenerational or epigenetics? Intergenerational trauma.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Okay. But at
Melissa Shere Beek:the time, nobody could prove that scientifically it was carried on a cellular level. I mean, this is thirty some odd years ago, but I was thinking it was more yeah, was really yeah, go ahead. Sorry. We'll talk about that after that.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:So Rachel Yehuda did some really great research, I think seminal research, on epigenetics, and she was working with, for lack of a better word, offspring of survivors of the Holocaust. And she works with epigenetics or she did, now she's in psychedelics. But she did some great work with this, with epigenetics. And what we have found in this emerging research, and that's really what it is, is exactly what you just said from the cellular level. So if I experience something that is very difficult, traumatic, overwhelming I'm using those words on purpose.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Right. Right. Right. And I'm not able to process it. Yeah.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:The body keeps the score. Yeah. What happens is is there's a little tag that goes on to the gene. And if I procreate from this point on and by the
Melissa Shere Beek:way Your child carries that.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Your child carries that. And your child in the womb, right? So also, it's going to go to any child that they have.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:So we think that this tag, which by the way does not modify the genome at all, just pops onto it, and that means then that it doesn't necessarily express that gene. But stress stress hormones could activate
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. Absolutely.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:So whatever the person's perception is, whatever their environment is like.
Melissa Shere Beek:And their interpretation of it too. Exactly.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:That's exactly right. Yeah. So, you know, it's hard then to say is it environment, is it biological? We think for right now that it hangs on, the tag hangs on for about three generations.
Melissa Shere Beek:Really? Wow.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Yeah. So such cool stuff that I think we're starting to see some evidence to also that intergenerational piece and why I am also fascinated
Melissa Shere Beek:Fascinated. With Yeah. So, what is okay, so I have more questions about this, about the scientific method to sort of assess false psychic claims and authentic ones. Like, how do you how does someone navigate that?
Dr. Jennifer Williams:So, I'm going to interpret that question as I've got someone you mean from like in my with clients or
Melissa Shere Beek:you Well, mean a scientific method because some people who stand on the side of science and say, Well, what you're dealing with isn't fact and I can't see it and prove it, so it doesn't really exist for me. But then you have a whole community that believes, No, but it does exist. It, we're feeling it, we know, we're still healing from it, we're trying. So, how does someone navigate that if they're looking to heal themselves because they feel either some traumatic event has made that sort of impact on them, whether it's childhood or a past life, but how do they navigate that realm of finding someone who can help them?
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Okay. So, first, finding someone that can help them, they need to be trained properly.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Right? But I have so many clients that come in and say, how do I know I'm not making this up? How do I know that it's not just something that I saw on TV? How do I know that, you know, I'm just not wanting to perform for you and I made something up and I saw that? My answer to them would be exactly the same answer that I would say to a skeptic that's saying you can't there is no evidence behind this.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:I'm okay that there's not. Mhmm. Because we can use any of the pictures or the images or the feelings as metaphor. Right. We can, you know, do a little Jungian kind of, you know, look at archetypes Yeah.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Yeah. And themes. I'm good. Right. If you say that you're seeing pink flying elephants, and now I've already assessed you, that's not right.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Right?
Melissa Shere Beek:So, you know meet anything on the DSM three. You're fine.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:You're good to go. Right.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Right. So, you know, let's go with that. Uh-huh. It could be metaphor. Right.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Because I'm less interested, believe it or not, much of a researcher and academic as I
Melissa Shere Beek:am Uh-huh.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:In this work, I am less interested in the actual proof
Melissa Shere Beek:Mhmm.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Than I am in the healing. Right. So I wanna know what your feeling is.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right. Because that's valid. That's valid. Because it may not be something that you or I see, but if that person's experiencing it, it's their reality, that's that's where they're at.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:That's exactly right.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. We
Dr. Jennifer Williams:I mean, same thing, healing can happen in dreams. Right. Don't know if the dreams you're traveling to an alternate dimension or you're I don't know, maybe.
Melissa Shere Beek:Or messages subconsciously from a previous life or, you know, But exactly, it all
Dr. Jennifer Williams:you know what? You woke up from that dream and you like
Melissa Shere Beek:you learned something.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Felt something, and there's magic and healing in that.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yes. Yes.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:That's what I say to people. Let's not worry about whether we can justify
Melissa Shere Beek:Or validate it
Dr. Jennifer Williams:or of these. Mhmm. Until we have the ability to do that, what I'm looking at is, how are you feeling today? Right. How regulated are you feeling?
Dr. Jennifer Williams:And can we use that as a story? Right. Can we use that as something if you're if it doesn't feel because I'm gonna tell you if you've had a regression yourself. I'm going tell you if you've had a regression and you've had that kind of experience, you know like you know that that was real. And it doesn't matter what skeptic or what person says, oh, that's not real.
Melissa Shere Beek:So we can respect science but sort of validate and believe in the things that science can't explain.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Exactly.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. Okay, I like that. So, we talked about the scientific community and what they think.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:A lot more open today though.
Melissa Shere Beek:I think so. I think it's evolving. Think we're just sort of on the cusp of that. I think we have progressed enough in science where they can actually say, Oh yes, this is truth. And I think the world is opening up to understanding all of that.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:That's why I got so excited about neuroscience. Yeah. And that's what, you know, that whole process of that merging of the academic with the personal experience, which I've got a lot of other personal experiences with this, came together because I get so excited that we're starting to see evidence Yes. For some of this stuff that we weren't Right.
Melissa Shere Beek:That no one sort of believed in.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Soft science. Right.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. Soft science. Exactly. So what's the biggest myth about regression?
Dr. Jennifer Williams:What is the biggest myth about regression? Mhmm. I think that well, I'll tell you what I think a lot of people think. That we were someone famous in a past life, right?
Melissa Shere Beek:I was Cleopatra. Yeah.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Yeah. I I have literally done hundreds, probably more
Melissa Shere Beek:Mhmm.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Of regression, and I have yet to meet someone who was famous. Historical. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Oh, no. They were around people who
Melissa Shere Beek:were historical. During those time periods, but not yeah. Exactly.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Yeah. Yeah. I you know, and I
Melissa Shere Beek:Do you think that the skills I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Go ahead. Go ahead.
Melissa Shere Beek:Do you think that the skills and the talents and things not just the trauma, but, like, all of the things that they've learned in past lives get carried forward too? I think it
Dr. Jennifer Williams:can. Mhmm. I've seen that.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:I do have some thoughts on how it, you know, there might be some other things at play there. But in terms of that, I absolutely have seen that.
Melissa Shere Beek:You have?
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Yeah. I've seen and there's there's this one in particular I can't really talk about individual people, but I'll see if I can explain this without giving identifying information. Okay. But this gentleman went back into a past life in the eighteen hundred's in France. Wow.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:And he was a concert pianist and he composed a lot. He would perform for people and he was really, really good. And in this life that helped him to understand when he was really young, like when he was a couple of years old and he had not had any training, he went and sat down at a piano and just started to play.
Melissa Shere Beek:That's all the evidence I need.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Yeah. Yeah. He told me that later.
Melissa Shere Beek:No, but I believe that. I absolutely believe that because you have these prodigies that come with the experience and knowledge that how could that be? Yeah. Can't explain it.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:No. You can't. And I often, like, I'll I'll I'll see someone on the news, a young prodigy or something, and I'll be like, I bet.
Melissa Shere Beek:I bet. I I bet that came from a couple lifetimes ago.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Yeah. Exactly.
Melissa Shere Beek:So how can people use regression not just for healing but for educational and informational purposes?
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Interesting. Well, I think it depends on what you mean by educational and informational purposes, right? So, they can go back and rediscover information that they learned then and bring that forward. And I've had that. I've had a couple of clients actually do that and recall that information and bring that forward.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:But I'm really focused on the healing, on helping them to go back and look at the emotions of that.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right. So, you walked us through the process of that. Is it something that's like an acute situation, doesn't have to be long term therapy, but once we've dealt with the issues that, you know, once they've regressed and dealt with the issues, whatever trauma or whatever thing that they felt has happened to them and the healing goes, what's the is it individually based, the timeline? I was just gonna say. So there isn't like a ballpark timeline.
Melissa Shere Beek:It depends on each individual person.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:It does, and I tell people that call me, I'm like, if anybody says that to you, run It the other really depends.
Melissa Shere Beek:On the individual.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Uh-huh. I have seen it in one session.
Melissa Shere Beek:Oh, it's amazing. Yeah. Often. Wow, how wonderful.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Yeah, and it's usually around things like panic attacks
Melissa Shere Beek:or Anxiety,
Dr. Jennifer Williams:stress.
Melissa Shere Beek:Anxiety. Yes. Why do you hesitate on stress?
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Because stress seems to be ongoing and complicated Usually in various it's a specific phobia or, you know, or having something really significant Impactful. Impactful. Mhmm. Not that stress isn't.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right. Right. No. But I see what you're saying. Stress is ongoing.
Melissa Shere Beek:Every day there's little stressors and big stressors, but some impactful imprint is what you're referring to.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Yeah. And then they go back to the origins of it. And that's the key that I want to say, and if anybody's listening to this and wanting to go into and do a past life regression, it is really important for healing Mhmm. That if you go back to a time where this originated, where the the pain, the anxiety, the you know, usually happens around the death scene. Yeah.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:It is really important to go through the death scene and have the therapist heal it. That is what happens.
Melissa Shere Beek:Critical.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:It's very critical.
Melissa Shere Beek:And
Dr. Jennifer Williams:why? Because here we are, you're in a relaxed body state, you're feeling safe, comfortable. We can integrate that. There's distance in that. So you go back into that past life, experience it, you can watch it like you're watching a
Melissa Shere Beek:movie.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Like a movie, yeah. And work through that and heal that. And process all of that.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. That's fascinating.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:So you come back and you're not dealing with that anymore. Now, it's not magic. Remember it. It's work. It is work.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:It's work.
Melissa Shere Beek:It is. Are you exhausted after sessions?
Dr. Jennifer Williams:I'm usually invigorated. Really? Wow. I would think that it would be exhausting work.
Melissa Shere Beek:I love this work. That's great. That's really, so
Dr. Jennifer Williams:really do. And it's fun for me because I feel like I've got like a front row seat to history.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah, that's so true. That's so true. Okay, so let's talk about the future. What about progression therapy?
Dr. Jennifer Williams:So, and Brian Weiss talks about this, I think he had an entire book on it, where you can go into the future. I have progressed a handful of people into the future. Here's why, just personally, I'm not a fan of
Melissa Shere Beek:it because
Dr. Jennifer Williams:how do I say this? It's a sort of thing that I look at, like, based on how everything is right now in my life today in this timeline Mhmm. This is potential. Exactly. That might happen.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Right. But I might leave the office and take a left instead of a right, and already that's done.
Melissa Shere Beek:That's opened my world to something different. Yeah.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:So what happens is is that a lot of people then, just like, you know, they're like, oh, this is gonna happen. Either it's not a good thing or it is a good thing, and hold onto that rather than really looking at the flexibility of it. Right. Now staying present. And staying present.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Yeah. And if they go into it with the mindset that I'm just curious. Right. And so I love the opening Right. That you have of this podcast where you talk about curiosity.
Melissa Shere Beek:Curiosity. Yeah.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:That's what this is all about. Let's go into this with just a curiosity. Yeah. Not worrying about whether we're gonna prove this to be true or not.
Melissa Shere Beek:Just let's
Dr. Jennifer Williams:be a little curious. Yeah. And let's go into it. If you could go into it with a curiosity, if there's something to learn from it
Melissa Shere Beek:and
Dr. Jennifer Williams:you're okay with doing that Then that's
Melissa Shere Beek:a benefit. Great. I'll progress. Right. Okay.
Melissa Shere Beek:Good. So with all of your research and everything, what is the future of regression therapy? Is there anything new on the horizon?
Dr. Jennifer Williams:I think we're going to start to see I don't know that there's anything new on the horizon. What I can say is there are a lot more researchers that are looking at this and validating it, especially as we talk about neuroscience. Exactly. And especially around the importance of because there are some people that come out and say hypnosis is not a real thing. And memories, you can make them up and they're not active, they're not accurate.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:And that's true. Which is why we go with the feeling.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right. But if you're feeling something, that's an experience that you're having personally. So it's happening to you. It's real for you. That's it.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:So the more that we understand about the importance of regulating your body, getting your body into feeling safe, then the more we can understand And heal. And heal.
Melissa Shere Beek:So we talk about life as measured in lessons learned. What's the most important takeaway on regression therapy and how it can be beneficial to us?
Dr. Jennifer Williams:That's a wonderful question. The most important takeaway of how this could be beneficial for us is that if we can learn how to safely go back into uncomfortable feelings, whether it happened in this lifetime or previous lifetimes, and be able to walk through images that may seem disturbing but still allow ourselves to walk through them, complete them, and do it in a different way, we don't have to hold onto the pain in this life.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right. There will be healing. There will be healing. I Beautifully like that.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Thank you.
Melissa Shere Beek:I like that safe, I think is also a keyword to take out of there. It is safely. That's the key. Oh my gosh, this was incredible. Thank you so much.
Melissa Shere Beek:You're welcome. I was so honored to have you here. This is so wonderful. I hope you enjoyed it too.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:I did, I did.
Melissa Shere Beek:Okay, before I let you go, I do something with all my guests. It's called Quickie Questions. Are you game?
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Okay, I think so.
Melissa Shere Beek:What's your most treasured possession?
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Well, it's not a possession, but my family. Yeah, yeah, that's it. That's a
Melissa Shere Beek:good one. What is home to you?
Dr. Jennifer Williams:My family. Your family, I like it.
Melissa Shere Beek:Okay, who or what inspires you? Your family.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Oh gosh, my husband.
Melissa Shere Beek:Oh, that's so lovely, I like that.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:My husband.
Melissa Shere Beek:Aw, thank you husband.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:He's been through terminal cancer. He's had a rupture. I know we're ending right now, but there's a really cool regression story with that. He's had aneurysms, rupture, and he's an incredible survivor. He's stronger than anybody I know.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Amazing. He's my hero.
Melissa Shere Beek:Oh, I like that. That's beautiful. Oh wow, that's powerful. Okay, last thing. I have goosebumps about that.
Melissa Shere Beek:We'll talk about that after. What do you want to be remembered for?
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Oh, that makes me a little emotional.
Melissa Shere Beek:That
Dr. Jennifer Williams:I helped people to feel safe and connected and included.
Melissa Shere Beek:Oh, I like that. That's beautiful. I feel like you already have. That's a good thing.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:Thank
Melissa Shere Beek:you. Well, thank you so much for being here today.
Dr. Jennifer Williams:My pleasure.
Melissa Shere Beek:Stay for a minute. I'm gonna do my outro and then we can talk afterwards. To
Melissa Shere Beek:our listeners, thank you so much. So grateful you're here. Keep listening, keep learning, keep laughing, Keep up with Beek on being. Listen to Beek on being wherever you get your podcast. All episodes are automatically transcribed.
Melissa Shere Beek:DM us to share thoughts, ideas, or nominate a guest. A big shout out and a huge thank you to Steven Chen at Penthouse Studios. Woo hoo. Beek on being was recorded at Penthouse Studios and is a proud member of the Penthouse Podcast Network.